This invention relates to the winding of coils on stators and particularly to the automatic connection of stator coil lead wires to terminal connection devices mounted on stator cores. The invention is intended for use in winding 2-pole stators but may have application to other stators as well. In the last several years, various improvements in automatically effecting terminal connections of 2-pole stator coil lead wires have been suggested and developed. One such improvement is shown in Colwell, U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,187, granted July 24, 1973.
The apparatus shown in the above mentioned Colwell patent satisfactorily accomplishes the stator coil termination on the stator frame, but it and other known devices for the same purpose are relatively complex and expensive and, insofar as known, have been separate from the stator coil winding machines. Accordingly it has been necessary to provide additional handling devices for properly locating and/or maintaining the location of the stator coil lead wires during the interval in which the coils have been wound and the stator with the wound coil transferred to the machine or station for effecting the terminal connections.